An aid worker diary from Darfur, Sudan: real stories, random observations and occasional rants on the lives of Darfur’s two million displaced people and the somewhat bewildered humanitarian agencies who are trying to help them.
Sleepless in Sudan is just another website on just another violent conflict in Africa – but uncensored, direct and without the sugar-coating that the tightly controlled and highly politicized environment demands from the official sources.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Another thing that struck me about Condoleeza Rice's visit was the emphasis that she put onto the issue of rape - or, more importantly, the effect this seemed to have on the Sudanese government.

In Darfur, rape continues to be one of the most highly charged topics of all and the government is doing its best to bully the international community (be they UN or NGOs) to stay the hell out of it.

We would, of course, except that it continues to take place at a daily rate. Anyone who claims that rape is not being used as a weapon of war here in Darfur is either lying through their teeth or just plain nuts. It is rare that I come back from a camp visit without having met a woman who has been raped recently - and every situation report, security briefing or protection document that comes out of Darfur confirms this to the rest of the world (well, those who are listening at least).

Unfortunately, the government's silencing campaign has partially worked: earlier this week I ask another sheik whether he is reporting his community's rape cases to the (government-controlled) police force. He politely tells me that he would probably be killed if he did - beaten at a minimum, he adds as an afterthought, so no, he doesn’t report them anymore.

Not only that: women have also stopped seeking medical treatment after a rape, avoiding even NGO clinics. Clearly, the government's intimidation campaign has had some impact here: after seeing the government arrest foreign aid workers for publicising the huge number of rape incidences, women are simply too afraid that they will be beaten (or raped again) by security agents who suspect them of reporting cases. The fear is not unfounded: almost all of us in the field know that there are informants among the national NGO staff, even among the doctors and nurses at international aid agencies.

There is little that the average aid worker can do or say about all this if they don't want to be manhandled like this week's pesky US journalists. We are all acutely aware of the threat of being kicked out of the country, or worse, targeted in a "convenient" security incident.

Thankfully, these rules don't exactly apply to people like Condoleeza Rice, who did speak out on the issue of rape both prior to and during her visit. And lo and behold, the subject suddenly seemed a whole lot more serious coming from the lips of a senior US government official. Yes, the Sudanese government will address rapes in Darfur! And prosecute the offenders! And sign up to an international convention on the protection of women! Yes, something is going to be done!

While those on the ground are much too cynical too assume that anyone will actually follow through on these promises, there is a sense of relief simply in reasising that some things and some people obviously do still make the Sudanese government jump. Now if only they would make them jump a little higher...

3 Comments:

How incredible would it be if we got George Bush to go to the country and start a non-violent protest against the president. I guess just having him visit might do something... I hope you can forgive me for being naive. The average American feels pretty powerless and I'm trying not to listen to that and think of things I might be able to do more than just sending a few emails and making some phone calls. I've got a bigger voice than that.

Just wanted to let you know (Sleepless) that Ethan Zuckerman of the Global Voices Online project blog over at Harvard U. wrote a great feature commentary about your blog and your work in Darfur. Checkout his July 20th post "A Unique View from Darfur: Sleepless in Sudan". Here is the URL link to save you some time:http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/2005/07/20/a-unique-view-from-darfur-sleepless-in-sudan/

GV Online is where lots of serious international bloggers go regularly to find out what's up in the Blogosphere. Congratulations on the getting EZ's attention and that of bloggers around the world.

Sean, you're not being naive, you're being lazy Dude. Checkout the Coalition for Darfur site as they have all kinds of stuff you can do to help the people of Darfur and across the Sudan. Allow "Sleepless" the room to do her important work over there including keeping us bloggers informed about what's really going on "on the ground". She's the only blogger working from inside the IDP camps as far as I know, and that is really valuable.